1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to autonomous vehicles which autonomously travel in an area while working and a method of controlling its travel, and more particularly, to an autonomous vehicle which permits its work area to be readily set and its mode to be readily switched, and a method of controlling its travel.
This application is based on Application No. 9-067906 filed in Japan, which is herein incorporated by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Floors in an office building or the like are waxed (1) after completely removing the old wax, or (2) after lightly removing only the upper layer of the old wax. The waxing operation (1) is generally performed once every several years and the waxing operation (2) is performed once every one to two months. The work area includes the very limit of the floor up to walls in (1), while only the central part is waxed without waxing the area close to the walls in (2). This is because people usually do not walk so much close to the walls, and the wax around the area becomes less thinner than that in the central area where they often cross.
In such operations using an autonomous vehicle, if the operator can readily give an instruction to select operation (1) or (2) (hereinafter referred to as mode switching), it is very convenient. A conventional autonomous vehicle requires the operator to input numerical values for cumbersome setting of a work area or switching of a mode using a console or the like.